UCLA Center for Health Policy Research

This report, prepared jointly by the UCLA Center for Healthier Children, Families and Communities, the UCLA Center for Health Policy Research, and the Public Health Institute, is the first of its kind to reveal key measures of health and well being for California's three million children under age 6. Using data from the 2001 California Health Interview Survey (CHIS 2001), the report examines overall health status, access to quality health and child care services, special needs and disabilities, oral health, asthma, nutrition, and important early experiences for young children such as reading and attending preschool for young children in California. The study examines these indicators for young children related to the economic characteristics of the child’s family, ethnicity, place of residence and insurance coverage. The report covers major urban and rural counties throughout California. The development of the report was funded by First 5 California. Among the key findings are: California, there are substantial differences in health status by household income. Only half of children below 100 percent of the federal poverty level (FPL) are described by their parents as being in excellent health compared to more than 80 percent of children above 200 percent FPL. The proportion of Latino children reported to be in excellent or very good health (59.3 percent) is lower than for all other race/ethnic groups. About 202,000 children under the age of 6 are uninsured, representing 6.8% of young children in California. More than three-fourths of these children appear to be eligible for either Medi-Cal (California’s Medicaid program) or Healthy Families (California’s State Children's Health Insurance Program). More than one-fifth of young children diagnosed with asthma had an asthma-related emergency room visit during the year. The rate was 33.7% for children age 1-2 years. These findings suggest that asthma is not well controlled for many young children. In California, most children age 2-5 years (86.1%) receive the recommended daily intake of fruit. However, few young children (17.7%) in California receive the daily-recommended servings of vegetables (at least three servings). Fewer than half of parents (43%) read to their child daily. About 9% of children age 0-5 years are not read to in a given week by anyone in the household. Only one-third of chilfren age 3-4 years in households below 200% FPL are read to daily, compared to two-thirds in households above the 300% FPL. There are large racial/ethnic differences in preschool attendance among preschool age children. Only 12.6% of Latino children age 3-5 years are enrolled in preschool, compared to 36 percent of African American, 32.1% of American Indian/Alaska Native, 28.9% of Non-Hispanic White children and 23.4% of Asian children.